KevinJ

On our Alaska cruise there was some form we had to fill in along with the customs form that wanted the ArriveCan number you get with the QR code. Didn't think we needed to fill out the customs from since we weren't getting off in Vancouver, but Customer Service said we still needed to. I'm hoping some of this will stop before our October Canada cruise in October.

@AllenW Sorry your experience was so poor. We sailed Ovation June 17th, I did some research and found a few videos that all said Pier 91 was a mess. So I expected it. The porters all had bibs that clearly identified which cruise line they were collecting bags for. We had JR suite so got to bypass some of the line. We were there at 10:45 for our 11:00 time and there was already quite a line, they didn't open the doors till 11. Took a video of the boarding line at 12:30 and looked massive.

Will reach D+ after the first week of a B2B next year may-June. I understand I can speak to the C&A representative to get credit during the second week. Sure miss the double points promotion.

We always drive from New Hampshire the day before and stay near Newark airport. It's about a 4.5 to 5 hour drive depending on traffic. We always go down through the Merritt parkway in CT and over the GW. We'll leave around 10 in the morning which avoids the worst of the traffic. I'm already planning to drive to FL for our January and March cruises. Nice to be retired and not rally care how long it takes us.

I sort of feel like I missed an experience. My very first cruise was on Oasis in 2016, so I really had no idea how different it was.

I can confirm that Wonder has them. We're on Voyager in October, not sure what my wife is going to use the refreshment package for. She can't drink carbonated beverages, she gets the flavored waters from the machine. Perhaps she'll start exploring some mocktails?

Is there a simple way to determine if a ship has the free style machines, I've not been on one that doesn't. From the deck map in the app I don't see any on Voyager?

@Pattycruise yeah that one bar per deck seemed really strange. What do they only allow one bar per block?

So for our March 12th 2023 sailing they just swapped Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic with Perfect Day at CocoCay. I've just realized that 5 of my next 6 cruises are all stopping there. Might be getting to be a bit much. I've also been there on 3 of my last 5 cruises since October.

@Sifsig Sorry for your experience. We were on Oasis last October, saw Cats, but only a partial Aqua show due to staffing. Also sorry for the aggressive replies to your post, there are a certain number of folks that come by and drop a bomb and never return. Some folks were confused by the "maiden voyage" term. You probably were on the first cruise out of NJ when Oasis returned from Florida. On a couple of our cruises we also had comedians that told us their first show was "family" friendly and that the late show was adult content. I don't know about the drinks, I always specify a brand of liquor when I order. Although this year I've often had to search for another brand as my preferred brand was not available, no Greygoose, or no Tanqueray. We did Wonder in March and even though it was about it's fourth or fifth sailing, they still weren't up to speed on everything. If you've heard talk of things getting back to normal, well compared to last year they are better, compared to pre-covid they still have a ways to go. Folks who are only able to cruise as a "special" vacation do really want and expect to enjoy their hard earned trip and unfortunately these days things don't go right more often than we want.

My cruises prior to COVID when the cups were waiting for you in the cabin, I never even unwrapped one. My first four cruises post COVID when you needed to ask for a cup I never did. My last cruise on Ovation I actually decided to try the soda machine, I don't know why, but got the new style plastic cup. I happened to be sitting in the pub, for some reason, mid-afternoon the first day any couldn't believe the jam of people coming in to get their cups. I had to relocate to a seat furthest from the entrance by Sorrento's. The RFID chip was a sticker that they placed on the bottom of the cup. During the cruise I saw numerous people come by to get a replacement sticker because they fell off. I also saw several people getting replacement cups because they had dropped theirs and it cracked. Not sure where they are going with this, guess I'll find out on my Sept Oasis cruise, booked four hours ago

There were 4200 for the June 17 sailing. Also, both Ovation and Solstice passengers are in that line. You go to the left after crossing the street for Ovation and too the right for Solstice. Luggage is collected in the long wait area the same way, the porters have clearly marked jerseys for which ship they are collecting.

I've never done this before, so lets see if it works. I created a YouTube short showing the boarding area from the ship on June 17th, at 12:30

@HeWhoWaits That was my thought, however Celebrity Solstice was boarding at the same time and most of the people were going to them. Could have been shared excursions but this was 4 or 5 buses rolling in quite separately. I know our whale watch tour in Juneau was scheduled to get back at 8:30 which was all aboard time, and as soon as all 100 of us were on board they pulled up the gangplank.

When CVS cancelled our tests for our first cruise back in October and I had to scramble we switched to the EMED home tests for our next 4 cruises. I also always make sure that I have extras in case of issues. Sure hope this testing does go away, it's so much stress.

We were at Victoria last Friday on Ovation. We actually got in around 4:30 and I thought I saw people getting off around 5, but then it was around 5:15 when they announced that the gangway was open. We didn't get off but all aboard was 9:30, there were still allot of people getting on right up till 10:00, we pulled away about 10:15. It looks like lots of people were on buses coming back to the port. I'd see a bus pull up and then another group would come strolling down the dock. I wonder if people had trouble getting transport back to the dock, as there really isn't anything there.

I usually either just take a picture or re-hide any ducks I find. I don't do FB so wouldn't be able to update it. I found a duck on Ovation last week and decided to take it with me and re-hide it on Voyager in October, maybe it'll start travelling the world.

Sorry, at any given point ones experiences can be quite different. I suppose from the amount of communications he was handling that someone else was having your same experience.

Took this excursion last week on Ovation, I guess we missed the land slide by a couple days! The train did cross into Canada as it does a loop over the border and back. Guess they don't really count it as it's not very far, but the whole loop portion is in Canada past the Obelisk and the NWMP shack.

We've done the MDR our last few cruises, sometimes a specialty as well. Last week on Ovation we had a JS. We're probably not going to do another suite as I figure I can do two cruises for the same price so we decided to try the CK. Since we're from the east coast and always eat early I went up there first thing and asked about reservations for 5pm. I was told no problem, do you want that all week? Yes, I also decided to try new things on the menu as they prepare things so well. I did have to complement them on their steak cooking. I prefer medium rare but often ask for medium since most often they are under cooked, well I had three steaks, asked for medium rare and each time they were perfect. At 5pm there were never more than 4-5 parties in the restaurant so we had excellent service.

They haven't had any Tanqueray on the three cruises I've had this year, I've settled on The Botanist, last week some bars ran out of that and I did Aviation instead. My first two cruises had no Grey Goose, went to Belvedere. They are having all sorts of supply problems.

We stayed at the Courtyard Seattle Southcenter both before and one night after the cruise. The hotel had an Airport shuttle that we also took to the nearby mall. My wife forgot to pack her bathing suit. This shuttle was very nice the driver quite accommodating and it was on time. We used Seattle Express for transport to the port and back. We had a 9:45 pickup, got to the lobby at 9:30 and the shuttle was already there. Yeah, we were ahead of schedule. Unfortunately at our next pickup the guests were fashionably late for the pickup time. Any way got to the port by 10:45 were on board by 11:30, they really didn't open the doors until 11:00. Our return pickup was pretty straight forward, got to the pickup point, we were grouped with other folks going to our same area and off we went. The driver must have been somewhat in charge because he was constantly on his phone coordinating other drivers keeping things moving. I was quite pleased with them. PS the wife never used the suit and she bought two, because they were on sale.

Things can go much smoother at check in if you print out your test results. Having all you documents in hand so you can just show them at each check point can really stream line your experience.

Wow, Ok we're sailing June 17th, that is if we all test negative and if we actually get to Seattle from Boston. I have been viewing YouTube videos for this port and the ones I found did seem to show allot of chaos, but they were from 2019 and I had hoped things had improved. Looks like I'll need to pay attention to how our luggage is handled.

We've always gotten the 3 device package, one device for each of us. On one of our recent cruises my wife was using two devices, her phone and her kindle. She kept having problems when she wanted to switch, so on recent cruises we have gotten the 4 device option, much better. She just never understood that you could logout one session then login the next device. Oh well, you know the saying. Happy wife, happy life.